Hours passed and Aaron slowly began to lose steam on this idea. This massive file, with a huge amount of information, was turning out to be miles of rhetoric and babble that just made no sense at all. What Aaron couldn’t figure out was why all that paperwork was necessary. Derek Sinacola was just your average enlisted Marine, nothing at all like his brother’s file. So why did they document him so closely? Could they have worried about a pending lawsuit from the family? Nah, it was the military and he was active duty at the time of death. They couldn’t sue, even if they had evidence of wrongdoing.
Scrubbing a hand over his face, he placed the keyboard back on the desk and stood. He stretched his tired body and yawned deeply, taking several steps around the room to help wake himself. That gnawing, tickling across Aaron’s spine started. That was never a good sign, but something wasn’t right in that information; it didn’t make sense. Too documented, even for a government agency, and that meant something.
Most definitely the military was hiding information, but what? The time stamps on the files were legit, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t done that on purpose. The data seemed thorough. Aaron stared at the screen from across the room, forcing himself to think outside of the box.
Okay, so Kreed was a military badass, so it made sense that they’d recruit his brother if they’d ever realized the connection. The military could be ruthless. The price of freedom wasn’t free and ethics be damned. Knowing Kreed’s skills, Aaron could see the military wouldn’t have used him for his brawn, though that was impressive, but for his brain, and Kreed had spent most of his time overseas.
To gather intelligence from foreign enemies required the intuitive stealth of someone like Kreed Sinacola. Aaron’s eyes jumped to his computer as he moved forward. Could it be? If so, in today’s world, there would be no way to hide that information. With a speculative smile, Aaron sat down and woke his computer again. If it was there, he could find it. He even knew exactly where to go. Covering his tracks, he went to work.
~~~
Kreed woke to the sounds of…a printer? He didn’t even know Aaron had a printer in all that shit he’d carried around with him everywhere. Kreed opened his eyes to find the sun peeking in through the bottom of the dark shade covering the windows. Not surprising really. He’d gone to sleep in the early hours of the morning. As he rolled from bed, he looked over at the alarm clock. The bright red digital display read twelve thirty. He’d slept a long time. Must be the great company, good sex, and all these contented feelings of love he’d never experienced before that had him sleeping this long.
Whatever the reason, he was thankful, actually appreciative of a lot of things. But the biggest one was in there printing what sounded like a book from the way the machine droned on and on. He padded toward the bathroom, thinking over their evening. He hoped they’d broken ground last night with Aaron’s confession that he had secrets. Yes, he’d been sleeping and Aaron hadn’t meant for him to hear his disclosure, but that didn’t matter. An admission of secrets meant that his guy was opening up, coming around to agreeing there could be a future between them. Those hidden secrets would come in time. It would all be baby steps, but that was okay too.
Kreed brushed his teeth and splashed water on his face, then reached for a towel. After drying his face, he haphazardly hung the towel back on the ring and went in search of his jeans. He dug through the pile of their clothing, found his, and tugged those on, not bothering with any underwear, being careful as he zipped. He walked out in the hall then stuck his head in the guest bedroom. His guy was busy working and wore those damn headphones, probably not hearing him at all. There wasn’t any food or empty plates around, which meant Aaron had to be starving by now.
Resisting the urge to bother his workaholic lover, Kreed padded toward the kitchen. He began frying up some bacon and eggs before starting the coffee.
As expected, Aaron came around the corner, maybe taking the kid a little longer than he would have thought since he was almost done with cooking. Grabbing a piece of bacon, he dropped it in his mouth, chewing as he glanced at Aaron over his shoulder. He smiled at Aaron, who stood in the middle of the kitchen, not moving, his face a mask of anger and pain, and in his hands were several printed pages.
“What’s wrong?” Kreed asked, turning fully toward Aaron.
“I wanted to do something for you. Give you something back, but those motherfuckers… Kreed…I’m so sorry.” Aaron was shaking his head. “Those self-righteous assholes…” Tears formed in Aaron’s eyes, and it confused him. Dread coiled in his gut and trepidation sent fear racing down his spine. He moved forward as Aaron handed him the pages he held. All Kreed saw was his brother’s name listed on top before he lifted his eyes to Aaron’s.
“What’s this?” Aaron moved in closer, placing both hands around his upper arms.
“I wanted to give you closure on your brother’s death. I wanted you to know what happened so there wouldn’t be any more questions for you. You could begin the process of healing, but… Honestly, I never thought I’d find something like this.”
Kreed lowered his gaze to the pages. “How did you get these?”
“I hacked the system.”
“Do they know you did this? Can they find you?” He knew the information in his hands was life-altering, and he didn’t want the man he loved at risk for gathering this for him.
“Not likely. I covered my tracks.”
Kreed nodded, his eyes going back to black words on the pages. His heart sank. He’d told himself he didn’t need to know what happened. It didn’t truly matter because nothing would bring Derek back, but now that he had the information in his hands, his heart hammered in his chest, and he had to fight to draw air into his lungs. With eyes fixed on the documents, he moved past Aaron and headed for the kitchen table where he took a seat. Sucking in a deep breath, Kreed steeled his spine as he turned the first page and began to read. Aaron walked over to the chair across from him, put his hands on the table and waited.